Charlotte County Speaks-10-28-25-hr2

Tuesday 10/28/25 Hour 2. With the Master Gardeners.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now an ordinary kid on Halloween.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Look, I'm ten, now, okay, I've been around the block
a few times. I've seen behind the curtain. I let
you say chickor treat and you give me candy. That's
the deal. What I'm not going to tolerate this year
are Smarties or neck a wafer. So if that's in
the offing, take your butt back to Walmart and step

(00:23):
up your candy game. And to the woman that gave
me raisins last year, I know where you live. We
all do. I'm not saying eggs may find your garage door,
or your jacoly antern might have an unfortunate accident, or
even that your cat sparkles.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Will go missing.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
But this year, maybe you go with the full size
candy bars. Have you Halloween?

Speaker 4 (00:49):
This has been an ordinary kid on Halloween.

Speaker 5 (00:53):
Get ready to celebrate all things chocolate because it is
National Chocolate Day, National Click Day.

Speaker 6 (01:02):
I can bore you to death with stats about chocolate.

Speaker 7 (01:04):
It's not boring at all.

Speaker 4 (01:05):
So we have chocolate.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
You get the charmingly chocolate like chocolate.

Speaker 4 (01:10):
My beautiful chocolate.

Speaker 8 (01:13):
Chocolate City.

Speaker 9 (01:15):
Don't do that.

Speaker 6 (01:15):
My chocolate never be touched by human ant.

Speaker 4 (01:19):
Yes, in this present crisis.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is
the problem.

Speaker 4 (01:31):
This is Charlotte County Speaks.

Speaker 8 (01:33):
Your chance to let your voice be heard on local, state,
in national issues and now broadcasting live from a dumpy
little warehouse.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
Behind a taco bell.

Speaker 8 (01:44):
The host of Charlotte County Speaks, Ken love Joy, Thank you.

Speaker 4 (01:49):
Johnny News Radio fifteen eighty one hundred point nine FM,
WCCF Radio dot com, and on your iHeartRadio app. This
is Charlotte County Speaks. Phone lines are open at nine
four one two zero six fifteen eighty toll free eight
eight eight four four one of fifteen eighty and welcome
to the Master Gardners. Scralph, you're here again and here again.

(02:11):
What happened you had a cancelation in your schedule?

Speaker 1 (02:15):
I don't know, Yeah, who knows?

Speaker 7 (02:16):
With him? Glad to be here with Bill and Sarah
and so we're fully loaded today. Here. First thing, I
guess as I've been working on the twenty twenty six
Master Gardener volunteer training program and I got almost all
the speakers lined up, which Sarah is one of them.

(02:37):
And we'll start the first week of March twenty twenty
six and The easy part is if they go to
our website, and I'm going to drag them through our
ask iphis website first. So if they go to ask iphis,
it's ask I as an ice f S and Frank
as an apple SS and Sam. And if they scroll

(02:59):
down all the way to the bottom of that page
where it says office locations, click on that, click on Charlotte,
and then you'll get to see all the things on
our website. Plus, if you look in the menu, you'll
see the master Gardener tab. Click on that, and then
that gives you access to better Impacts sometimes called sudden impact,

(03:20):
but better impact, which you then electronically set up your
account and that will be your application, and then we'll
start to get back to you January February for interviews
and such as we line up the class generally no
more than fifteen people in a class. That's a good size,

(03:40):
and it's about sixty nine hours ending the first week
in June with the graduation.

Speaker 4 (03:48):
Nice.

Speaker 7 (03:48):
So, yeah, I was gonna just put in my notes
here about still have rain barrels, right, Sarah, Yes.

Speaker 3 (03:56):
We still have rainbarrel arrows. We always have rainbarrels. Are
sixty dollars.

Speaker 8 (04:01):
They are.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
Upcycled I guess repurposed food grade drum that are equipped
with an overflow and a water spigot, and they are
available for sale at Centennial Park which is near the
Westport community or in the Westport community up north part
of Port Charlotte. That is our where our office location

(04:24):
is one one two zero Centennial Boulevard. And once again
they are sixty dollars for a fifty five gallon rain barrel.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
The excuse me, Ralph. At the hydroponic presentation that Bob did,
there's several people asking if they could get a rain
barrow right then? Do they need to call ahead of time?
Is that the best way to do that? Call the office?

Speaker 3 (04:47):
Either way, sometimes it's better if you call only just
to make sure somebody is in the office because we're
in and out so much. But the master gardeners are
usually their Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays from one to four
and if nobody's in the office, usually the master gardener
volunteers can can go unlock the the community garden where

(05:09):
they're stored. And yeah, we do cash, exact cash or check.
Because we're we're old school like that. We can't take
credit cards yet, yeah, or zelle.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
Or that stuff.

Speaker 3 (05:22):
Yeah, so you have to bring exact cash or a check.
Does anybody write checks anymore besides for barrow they do.

Speaker 4 (05:32):
I had to dig mine out a couple of weeks ago,
but check yeah.

Speaker 7 (05:36):
Wow. But Sarah, Sarah's working on a vending machine that
will just put your money in then it pops out
the box.

Speaker 1 (05:42):
That would be yeah, because they and not just there.
But I get questions from time to time, so I'll
just have them call the office, is what?

Speaker 3 (05:51):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (05:52):
Or and you always have rainbarrows pretty much always.

Speaker 3 (05:56):
And the office hours are eight to five Monday, Monday
through Friday. But yes, it is best to call first.

Speaker 7 (06:04):
Yes, And I was going to mention too. A lot
of people ask about soil testing and they say, can
I bring this sample to your office? And we make
it easy for you. You go to just put in a
search engine UF soil lap and in that does a
tab it says extension soil test pick out generally then
when you want to pick out a vegetable and landscape,

(06:25):
and it just tells you just how to take the sample.
It's ten dollars. You take about a cup of soil
and you're doing that by random sampling over the area
you want tested ten to fifteen subsamples. You put that together,
so you have one cup of dry soil, put that
in a ziplock bag. You fell your form, put the
check in for ten bucks, and ship it off yourself.

(06:48):
Within two weeks you get the results. We get a
copy because they just helped somebody with their copy yesterday,
so we can help translate or interpret what's going on
with your soil. If you're confused about.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
All that stuff, what do you What kind of results
do they get?

Speaker 7 (07:03):
I mean you get your basic pH is super important
as I'm concerned. Yeah, and the general soil nutrient profile phosphorus, potassium,
but does not test for nitrogen because nitrogen is so
mobile they can't get a good reading with that. You
have to do a tissue test from the plant actually

(07:25):
to get the accurate nitrogen reading. But it's when you're
preparing to do something or having a problem, this is
a tool to start looking into it. For example, something's
not grow, say boheo grass is not growing. Well, take
the soil test and the pH is eight point two.
That's probably part of the problem. Boheograss does not do

(07:46):
well in highly alkaline soils. So if or even before
you were putting any turf down, you test it, I'd say,
don't be growing beheograss there?

Speaker 1 (07:56):
Well, what as that example? What would they grow?

Speaker 7 (07:59):
What kind of well? Or would Yeah, that's going to
be somewhat futile. I would say probably Saint Augustine is
going to be more tolerant to that condition. Otherwise, the
high pH will actually cause certain nutrients like iron as
an example, to not be available to the grass, and
it yellows out. It's not very good looking, especially during

(08:21):
the summer. You can certainly add iron back artificially, but
it's only a temporary solution of course, too, but I
think the soil testing is very helpful for that. Now
I've got, of course.

Speaker 4 (08:36):
My gift to you for the day, Oh thank you.

Speaker 7 (08:38):
Do you know what it is? Nope? Nope. It's called
the butter daisy.

Speaker 4 (08:44):
Butter daisies.

Speaker 7 (08:46):
Now, generally this is more of a.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
You know, you're scaring me, because when he showed me
that walk in and I thought the exact same thing.

Speaker 7 (08:58):
Well, it's it's really more of a summer plant because
it takes the heat in community. But sometimes I don't
see it in the box stores all the time. So
when I saw it, I said, oh, I'm gonna grab
that for ken, and I would recommend you put it
probably in a pot, but it's gonna flower its head
off for quite a bit of time. There are dwarf
cultivars that are like twelve to ten inches, but undwarf

(09:19):
ones maybe about twenty four inches. I'm gonna guess this
is a dwarf one full sun well drained soil. It's
an annual. If you have a frost within the container,
just bring the container in or cover it up there.
But generally I'd be planting this probably April next year. Okay,
But I just like it because it just keeps flowering
and flower and floul flowering like crazy. Nice.

Speaker 4 (09:42):
Thank you, very good. And with that, we got to
take our first break. We'll be right back on news
radio fifteen eighty radio show.

Speaker 8 (09:48):
Fun fact. This radio show was voted number one by
the readers of Sophisticated Plumbing Magazine.

Speaker 4 (09:57):
Let's get back to the show.

Speaker 10 (10:00):
We'll be right back with Charlotte County Speaks News Radio
fifteen to eighty WCCF.

Speaker 7 (10:09):
No help wanted.

Speaker 6 (10:11):
Yeah, that's what's going on in this country at this
point in time, more and more companies are basically.

Speaker 4 (10:16):
Saying that we're just not going to hire.

Speaker 6 (10:19):
We got a bias against adding staff, one after another
after another, JP Morgan, Walmart, go right on down the list, Goldman, Sachs, Airbnb. No,
they're utilizing AI or they're waiting to see how AI
is going to play out before they hire. Very difficult

(10:40):
for recent college grads. That this number was striking to me.
Fifty eight percent of college grads within the like if
you graduated from college within the last year, fifty eight
percent of the kids can't find a job, my friends,

(11:01):
is problematic to say the least. And obviously you're getting
concerns in Washington watch Dog, on Wall Street dot Com.

Speaker 9 (11:38):
Mom and and shooting, then rape and killing. But in
my the pone lesson one and half ways in the.

Speaker 7 (11:47):
Budding, every time.

Speaker 9 (11:48):
I turn around, something else going around. They tell me what.

Speaker 4 (12:03):
News Radio fifteen eighty one hundred point nine FM, WCCF
ten twenty three Here at Charlotte County Speaks. Master gardeners
are in the house taking your calls. If you have
a plant related question, just gives a shout at nine
four one two zero six fifteen eighty toll free eight
eight eight four four to one fifteen eighty ralph.

Speaker 7 (12:20):
And well bibist gardening in a minute? Get out really?

Speaker 1 (12:25):
Oh yeah, plus a couple other things.

Speaker 3 (12:26):
Okay, go wait on, I am timing you. I'm just
going to see what happens. Okay, ready, so go all right?

Speaker 1 (12:34):
Rotating pest management strategies is my gardening in a minute?
Have you ever asked yourself, I've got a lot of
bugs in my garden, but what I've been using doesn't
work anymore. Well the healthcare world, infectious bacteria can develop
a resistance to antibiotics, the same as true to your garden.
Insects can develop a resistance to pesticides. If you are

(12:57):
experiencing ongoing problems with the same pest, don't use the
same pesticide repeatedly. Instead, look for a product that can
target the pest using an active ingredient from a different
chemical factory. Now you're going to need to read the
labels on the pesticide and do some research. Now, part
of that research might include contacting your county extension. They

(13:19):
are more than willing to help and always will call
you back. Pictures are helpful. As a responsible gardener, you
should try using a variety of pest management strategies. Don't
get into a rutso to speak. When practical. Start with
mechanical means like removing insects by hand or hoes them
off your plants. Use pesticides only when pest levels reach

(13:41):
a tipping point. Also, rotating vegetable crops, giving enough space
between plants, and pruning excess plant growth all help. Both
spacing and pruning allow for more airflow, which helps reduce
disease and makes it easier to spot insects and directs
more energy to fruit development. Using integrated pest management strategies,

(14:04):
you will help protect the environment and still control pests.
Remember in Florida, you will never eliminate pests, only control them,
but you can manage them to have a thriving garden.
That's gardening in a minute. For more information about other
gardening topics, contact your county Extension office at nine four
one seven sixty four four three four zero, or visit

(14:27):
the University of Florida ask IFIs website. It almost sounded
like Ralph.

Speaker 7 (14:32):
That was beautiful.

Speaker 1 (14:34):
I mean, didn't I sound like Ralph?

Speaker 9 (14:35):
I don't have to do time time.

Speaker 3 (14:37):
That was gardening and one minute and fifty eight seconds.

Speaker 1 (14:42):
We'll have to change the name to gardening in two
minutes when you're done.

Speaker 4 (14:46):
Yeah, I thought, just gardening talk.

Speaker 5 (14:48):
Okay, that's it.

Speaker 1 (14:50):
We don't need a timer. Okay. I have a couple
of things that I mentioned to Ralph that I wanted
to talk to. But you know, really the first out
of this gate this summer, I wanted to grow sweet potatoes.
So I got like three different variety of sweet potatoes.
I had the purple one, I don't know. They didn't grow, and.

Speaker 5 (15:13):
I only got I got like six bins that I
planted that were huge, and I got maybe three.

Speaker 1 (15:25):
Sweet potatoes. Now, my daughter, who really doesn't have time
to grow anything but love sweet potatoes, I planted too
in her raised bed well. Two weeks ago. She said, Dad,
should I harvest these? She has a five gallon bucket
full of sweet potatoes. She didn't do a darn thing
to them. I don't think all summer, and God bless hers.

(15:47):
And my whole point of bringing that up is anyone
can grow stuff as long as you limit it to
one thing. She probably did weed it in that so
I just wanted to give her a shout out. The
next thing I want to talk about, and it has
it's related to the hydroponic vegetable growing is Bob Pryor
and I went on a tour of mobile nursery in

(16:10):
Lee High Acres and they all the farmers in the
area up to Georgia their seeds. They germinate all their
seeds and it's an assembly line. They have the soil,
the farmers give them the seeds. Then they have this
machine that puts dimples in there. Each tray size is

(16:31):
dependent on the type of seed, the number of seeds
per dimple. Bob didn't know this that, but seedless water
melons actually need seeded melons to pollinate. And I tell
everyone that because that's one of the few things Bob
didn't know. And sometimes they put two seeds in the
seed hole and then the next thing they do is

(16:54):
it goes down the line and they just top it
with pearlite to cover it up. Then they have this
measured watering system and they put in a heater because
certain seeds germinate under roughs just nodding his head up
and down. And then what they do is depending on
the grower some farms they have palletts of like twenty

(17:17):
high and they just stack them and put them in
a corner for either two to three days, and then
they take them outside to their greenhouse. And they have
virtually no waste. The soil that they scrape off and
do they pick up and put them in bags and
they sell them every Friday. It's a special soil mix
that they have in the greenhouse. They have they grow selery.

(17:41):
I didn't realize it grew celery down here and they
have to cut it. And they devised the I was
back in Kentucky again. In some ways they mowed it.
They put these like mowers at the right level and
it just goes down the line and it just we
couldn't see that, but we saw what the mowors look like.
They kind of look like hybrid lawnmowers. But anyways, really

(18:03):
fascinating to see that. And I bring this up is
they make it look so easy, but anyone who tries
to germinate vegetable seed, it is really tough. I mean
it's really tough. And they have like a ninety percent
germination rate, and Bob and I are like at fifty percent.

(18:25):
Maybe I know grosuners, I know. But anyways, the I know,
I know, I know, I know. And the other thing
is I wanted to talk a little bit about the
hydroponic vegetable growing presentation that Bob did. I helped him

(18:45):
with that, and I noticed several people though that I'd
seen at other presentations before. Yeah, but I almost wanted
to ask him and I probably should have. They should
just become a master gardner. And it's one guy that
I did. Remember you were talking to him. And then
I went to sit in the corner where Bob has
me sit and he comes walking over and it's like, okay,

(19:07):
he goes, yeah, I got a question. I got a
question about growing bananas. You can't grow them hydroponically. No, no, no,
I want to know how many you can have together.
But in any case, they felt comfortable asking questions about everything.
It's my points that I really wanted to make are
it's a viable option for space challenge gardeners, and it
can be a better option for certain vegetables. And that's

(19:30):
how I use it as the best option to grow
it hydroponically. Like green beans, I have a problem growing
in dirt. They get really buggy, hydroponically. They didn't last year.
The popular system that we use is called set It
and Forget It. It's floating styrofoam and a five or
three gallon bucket. It's still relatively new to master gardeners,

(19:54):
but it's a much less expensive than traditional hydroponic systems,
and you just add the water, add the fertilizer, check
the pH. When the water level goes down, you add
more fertilizer, check the pH. And certain vegetables will suck
water when they're starting to flour. And one thing that

(20:18):
Bob is trying to grow, and he convinced me to
have a competition with him, is we're going to both
grow watermelon and cantalope hydroponically. Yeah. Yeah, well challenge accepted.
I'm dope enough to do that. So that's really all
I wanted to say. It's really an option for people,
particularly if you only have a limited time or limited

(20:39):
space to use hydroponics. And it's really pretty inexpensive. I
think they sold them for like fifteen dollars for the
whole kit, and that included the plant.

Speaker 7 (20:50):
So your visit to the germination thing was your vegetable
Disney World then.

Speaker 1 (20:54):
Huh, it was yeah, the yeah, but you know, you're
really shouldn't take Bob to those things because he just
starts wandering around and they really don't want him to
wander around. So but anyways, that I digress, But that's
all I wanted to talk about, is the I like
it as an option. I'm learning something new every year
Bob and I talk about it. There's once you understand

(21:20):
all the details, which there aren't many, then you can
just keep repeating it. With soil, you just don't really
know what's in the soil. You've got nematodes. I mean
you're can have it tested and stuff like that. But
with the water, I mean, you know exactly what it's got,
the same nutrients every time.

Speaker 3 (21:41):
So how do you prevent Yeah sorry I wasn't there.
How do you prevent the but mosquitos and stuff? How
often do you have to change that water?

Speaker 1 (21:51):
You know, we brought that up and I've never had
a problem. We have never had a problem. The styrofoam
is fits not one hund around the bucket. I mean
it's not a tight fit because it has to float down,
but there's only like an eighth of an inch gap.
So we've never had a mosquito problem. Ever, now we've

(22:13):
only been doing it for a little over a year, and.

Speaker 3 (22:14):
What about the water turning green?

Speaker 1 (22:17):
Oh, algae can be a problem. That I had that
problem over the summer, and it was because I was
a it got too hot, I think, and b it
was I put probably too much fertilizer.

Speaker 3 (22:27):
Okay, just curious, not discouraging anybody by any means. It
was just when I tried it last year with the
one of the sample buckets, those were my issues. But
I tend to ignore once it's planted. I mean, oh,
you got to be like tough to live in my

(22:48):
The only certain areas that get.

Speaker 1 (22:50):
Babied Well, Bob uses air bubblers.

Speaker 3 (22:53):
In Okay, that makes sense, That would make a lot
of sense.

Speaker 1 (22:56):
Well, you don't have to. I didn't. Now I'm trying
to do it a little bit because he thinks it's successful.
But you don't really have to. But that helps with
the algae. And what I read with the algae is
put a little bit of hydrogen peroxide in there into
the water and that helps keep the algae down. So

(23:18):
and certain crops do better than others. So I try
it again, and he has he does his on the
LINI so he has a screen detecting his I do not,
but the so it's exposed more to the elements, and

(23:39):
so I have more My problems are more like animals
like raccoons. They they dig into the medium and stuff
like that. Why I don't know, but so yeah, I'll
probably he Bob grows lettuce very successfully. He grows zucchini successfully.
I grew green beans very successfully last year. I think

(24:01):
this year they're not as successful because I planted them
a little too soon. I think they just are getting scorched.
The about My zucchini's doing good. My lettuce is doing good. Nice, yeah,
I mean just you kind of have to give it,
try some different things. But he does a lot of
lettuce and stuff like that.

Speaker 7 (24:22):
Cool there are you good? All right? And you should
have in your garden now cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and
collars at.

Speaker 1 (24:31):
Least can you put kerotsen now too?

Speaker 7 (24:34):
Get him in, get them in. Any of these cool
seasoned crops are going to benefit from our weather now.
So and I've got all those in and they're doing
really really good. You know, a lot of it's getting
the soil prepared as the most time consuming part of it.
But then also thinning. You want to make sure you

(24:54):
thin these out and then you can consume the thinnings
too if they're big enough. But but if you've got like, uh, kale,
I've got kale in two, I've had to thin it
a couple of times too, because otherwise it will just
crowd each other out and you won't get a lot
of production there.

Speaker 1 (25:12):
What about cucumbers, You could put cucumbers in now, because
I'm still I'm getting cucumbers, but I'm getting bugs too
on them.

Speaker 7 (25:23):
Sorry about that.

Speaker 1 (25:26):
But you know who isn't? But you know who isn't Phil?

Speaker 7 (25:31):
Phil?

Speaker 1 (25:31):
You know why his whole sulfur thing. He swears by it.
He puts sulfur down in the garden and he's got
a lot of reasons for it. And he said he
doesn't have any.

Speaker 7 (25:43):
Sounds very acid to me.

Speaker 4 (25:44):
I don't know, see's already pretty acidic.

Speaker 1 (25:50):
Yeah, I know. But it's an experiment for him as well,
which is good for Phil to do an experiment. Yeah.

Speaker 7 (25:57):
Also, cool seasoned herbs. If you want good herbs for
this one, to put in dill, cilantro and parsley now
and they'll just supply you like crazy. Very soon you'll
start seeing snap dragons, petunias, and geraniums also in the
box stores. And those are our winter bedding plants that
do very well too.

Speaker 3 (26:18):
What about Colius Colius are like, I'm I'm hooked on
all these different bright colors of Colius right now that
are coming out.

Speaker 7 (26:26):
You know, they can get frozen, but they're very versatile almost.
I mean they take the heat and they certainly can
take some coolness.

Speaker 3 (26:35):
So yeah, I'm a Colius kick with all the bright
pink and purple.

Speaker 7 (26:39):
And I don't know how many cultivars are There are a.

Speaker 3 (26:42):
Lot, and my favorite one that I've recently purchased, it's
called Heartbreaker and it's so pretty. It's so pretty anyway
when I was googling it or it was developed by university.

Speaker 7 (26:55):
Yeah, work especially at the really pretty UF Research Station.
And way, mama there, I have another thing I want
to talk about. A pest. Well, it's called the ghost
snail or Bilimalus sporaticus, and it's not native to hear

(27:19):
but it is getting around and about and it is
in Charlotte County. It's about an inch long. It's a
typical spiral snail appearance, it's a it's a terrestrial snail,
so it's it's on the land. And at first they
thought there was just feeding on like films on plants
and such, but this is actually eating plants too. The

(27:42):
weird part is though it will becomes locally abundant in
one place and then you won't see it anywhere else,
but people and cars and trains actually move them from
place to place because they get in and get sort
of hidden in there, and then they get moved to
their next point of station. Things to do. You can

(28:03):
use well, the older type of slug and snail bait,
the metal alo hyde. The problem is it's toxic to
pets and things if they ingest it, and the pellets
look like the food almost so they would tend to
pick it up in wildlife. So they have an iron
phosphate substitute. So you have to read the label. The

(28:26):
labels a law because this is still a pesticide and
it's safe a round pasts and pets and wildlife, and
it's got a bait in it, so the snails come
and feed on it and they ingest it and it
kills them or they stop feeding at least, But this
is the one that's popped up and every once in
a while somebody's got a big outbreak and they send
me pictures and there's like thousands of them and they

(28:48):
just can't get rid of them all. I don't know
how they came in originally, but anyways, that is one
of the problems that are around. And I've given all.
I'm going to give you your snail pictures, your snail
field guide.

Speaker 4 (29:03):
For these like actual size, I know, I don't.

Speaker 7 (29:07):
Think so, because the African land snail there is bigger
than that.

Speaker 4 (29:10):
Well yeah, up to eight inches, so it's actually even bigger.

Speaker 7 (29:13):
Than it's bigger. So that shows you some invasive and
native snails.

Speaker 4 (29:18):
Well, this little invasive one, this tiny, tiny, cute you
probably just walk on those, right I have.

Speaker 7 (29:27):
But there's a number of ones that are somewhat damaging.
But we have also a lot of native snails that
the tree snails that are endangered and because people collected
them so much, because they're beautiful. Flip it over and
take a look at the other ones there too, are cute.

Speaker 3 (29:45):
Cute, cute, well google eyes on them.

Speaker 4 (29:49):
Well you only see the shell, they're not showing the
little eyes on it.

Speaker 7 (29:53):
So that's one thing. Another thing, there was an outbreak,
if you would call it that of palm trunk rot,
which is a fungus, and this whole neighborhood they had
bottle poms and all of a sudden, the heads, the
tops of them were dropping off. Well, they sent me
some pictures and then you know, I didn't have a
lab test, but the damage and symptoms said it was

(30:15):
this palm trunk rot and it has to get into
the palm through a wound. And talking to other colleagues,
they we speculated that last year's hurricane may have damaged
some of those just nicked them and introduced the fungus
through this whole neighborhood because they all had the same Really, no,

(30:36):
the only prevention is don't wound the.

Speaker 1 (30:39):
Bomb, but you can't with a storm and there's nothing
you can do. Those things get beat up.

Speaker 7 (30:45):
So that was another recent occurrence that I thought was
interesting and timely. Good bugs, big eyebug. Have you ever
seen the big eyebug? Have not seen the big eyebug?
They have big eyes.

Speaker 4 (31:00):
I kind of gathered that.

Speaker 7 (31:02):
And the reason they're good is they eat chinchbugs.

Speaker 4 (31:05):
Oh yeah, you want those?

Speaker 7 (31:06):
Yeah? And they look a little because they're in the
same family of true bugs. They look a little bit
like a chinchbug, so you may see when it's a
chinchbug and just treat and all. But if there's less
than twenty to twenty five per square foot when you're
counting them, when you're monitoring, they're behind the scenes taking
care of them, and you don't have to do a thing,
So monitor and identify before you strike. I guess I'm

(31:31):
saying here. Another one is the minute pirate bug. I
don't know why it is minute. I don't know why
it's called a pirate bug. But they eat thrips, and
that's another good thing. And they have a sucking piercing
mouth part. They just push it into the thrips and

(31:52):
suck it dry.

Speaker 8 (31:53):
Gross.

Speaker 7 (31:54):
It is gross, but it's it's good.

Speaker 1 (31:56):
Speaking of pest, I have a question. I have a
lot of wasps in my garden this year. Is that
good wasps? Is that good or bad? The I don't know.
I really don't know.

Speaker 7 (32:07):
Say they're probably paper wasp, but paper wasps are hunters,
so they're looking for meat. They're looking for caterpillars and
other insects to bring back to their brew to feed them.

Speaker 1 (32:17):
So they're good to have with my cucumbers.

Speaker 7 (32:20):
Right, unless you bug them and then you get.

Speaker 3 (32:22):
Stung, which I did Saturday. I was pulling weeds near
a big agave and I forgot there was a wasp
nest in there. And I was like, and I've never
been stung in my life, Like I've probably put myself
on They love me like, they don't sting me. They
won't sting me. And oh I was like probably a

(32:43):
foot away from them, and I just got stung multiple
times on my right arm. It was my own fault.
I was right there next to them. But yeah, that hard.

Speaker 7 (32:51):
They're very they're very protective, yes, And there's all different types,
especially ones underneath palm fronds and the little ones there
and you don't see them. You brush up against them,
and they know to go for your ears and your
eyes and your knuckles the most painful spots.

Speaker 1 (33:05):
Yeah they do. Oh yeah, bees don't.

Speaker 3 (33:08):
Oh yeah, yeah, the only time I've ever been stung
a kid stepped on one.

Speaker 1 (33:12):
But oh yeah, man, stump on them.

Speaker 4 (33:15):
I had a bike rowing doing the canoe trip down
the Peace River. Oh yeah, yeah, doing that one up
near Arcadia and it was a big bumble bee, and
I saw it flying right at me. It landed right
on my neck and stung me immediately. Oh my god,
what about swamp the canoe.

Speaker 7 (33:36):
We used to as a kid. If we had stunned
a lot, we meant we had a good summer because
we got around and about.

Speaker 4 (33:44):
And building up resistance.

Speaker 1 (33:48):
But speaking of bees, my kim trimmed our basil. Yeah,
and I went out about an hour after that. There
were like three green bees just having around that, hovering
around that I've never seen the scent, That's what I
was thinking about. That was a rough question.

Speaker 7 (34:06):
Well, because we have the green orchid bee now, which
is a really cool thing. It's a little bit smaller
than honeybee, but it reminds you of ant Man. I
don't know why it looks like a superhero in an
exo skeleton suit. I mean, because they're very maneuverable. They'll
all they'll hang in sort of, they take a move

(34:27):
so many different ways.

Speaker 1 (34:28):
There's like three of them, just like.

Speaker 7 (34:29):
Well, the males collect fragrance from flowers and maybe they're
getting it from the basil, and they have little storage
areas in their hind legs that they use for mating
or something. I don't know, but they're around.

Speaker 1 (34:43):
Yeah, I would had my phone with me. I would
have taken a picture.

Speaker 7 (34:47):
Of green orchid bee because you'll see them.

Speaker 1 (34:49):
They're all with green orchid be green orchid.

Speaker 7 (34:51):
Be beautiful, metallic green. But it has so much mobility,
and you'd say, what the heck is that? It's not
your common cool?

Speaker 4 (35:06):
Sounds like fun. Ponder that as we head to our
next break. We'll be right back on News Radio fifteen eighty.

Speaker 11 (35:11):
Hey, welcome to the sales team.

Speaker 2 (35:13):
Here.

Speaker 11 (35:13):
You can have this cup.

Speaker 7 (35:15):
Hmm, that's good. Oh you like it? What is it?

Speaker 11 (35:18):
It's radio station coffee.

Speaker 7 (35:20):
Oh.

Speaker 11 (35:20):
The morning show always seems to make a pot right
before they leave. Then it just sits here all day.

Speaker 7 (35:24):
I kind of like it.

Speaker 11 (35:25):
The pot itself hasn't been cleaned since about twenty sixteen.

Speaker 7 (35:29):
Is that a hair in it?

Speaker 11 (35:31):
Probably so. They use an old microphone windscreen as a
coffee filter.

Speaker 1 (35:35):
The more you tell me, the more you seem to
like it.

Speaker 7 (35:38):
I know.

Speaker 11 (35:39):
And here's the best part. It's free. Company pays for it.
That's why nobody complains. You can't beat free coffee.

Speaker 4 (35:48):
Hey, what do you say?

Speaker 11 (35:49):
We take these and go watch the DJs through the windows.
You're like monkeys in a cage.

Speaker 9 (35:55):
Radio station.

Speaker 11 (35:57):
Coffee made by an intern with bad Jean.

Speaker 10 (36:01):
We'll be right back with Charlotte County Speaks News Radio
fifteen eighty WCCs News.

Speaker 4 (36:14):
Radio fifteen eighty one hundred point nine FM, WCCF ten
fifty two. Here at Charlie County Speaks. We've got the
master Gardeners in house and taken your calls at nine
four one two zero six, fifteen eighty high caller, you're
on with the Master Gardeners.

Speaker 7 (36:30):
That be me, that would be you.

Speaker 12 (36:33):
Uh, Can I go off subject for one moment? I
have a question for you if I may, Okay, I
listened to Jesse Kelly about three out of five evenings
last night. All I got was a bunch of dead airspace.
Is that no longer on the air?

Speaker 9 (36:53):
With no we.

Speaker 4 (36:54):
Had we had that storm that came through took out
a bunch of our UPS's in weird story experiencing those
problems this morning.

Speaker 12 (37:03):
All right, well, I appreciate you.

Speaker 4 (37:04):
You bet he'll be back tonight, Thank you.

Speaker 7 (37:09):
Josa.

Speaker 4 (37:10):
Yeah, I came in this morning and mel our guy
was here last night and he thought he got to
put a band aid on it until you get back today.
I come in this morning and alarms going off.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
Yeah it was a night.

Speaker 7 (37:24):
Yeah it was.

Speaker 4 (37:24):
I mean some real thick boomers.

Speaker 1 (37:26):
Ye it was.

Speaker 4 (37:27):
I didn't get much rain in my house.

Speaker 1 (37:29):
I didn't either, but it was all around all right,
there you go.

Speaker 3 (37:34):
Yeah, well, I want to buzz through some of our
upcoming events, but real quick. First, I just wanted to
mention yesterday I had the opportunity of helping out at
the Charlotte Harbor Environmental Center's Butterfly House. And it's also
known as Check and it's no if you're not familiar

(37:55):
with Check. It's out on bird Store Road and it's
a very large nature preserve and recently, within the last
few years, they have put in this beautiful enclosed butterfly house,
and I just wanted to mention that that it's there
and just kind of let people know that it's free
to get in. It's very educational, it's beautiful property, it's quiet, serene,

(38:20):
educational trails. The butterfly House, I think is open. I
think weekday mornings. You would have to look at their
websites for their exact hours.

Speaker 1 (38:32):
Yeah, my granddaughter loves that butterfly house when they come down,
she likes to go.

Speaker 3 (38:36):
They have done an amazing job putting that together and
running it. And on a side note, they are looking
for more volunteers. So if that's if gardening is up
your alley and butterflies are up your alley, they could
really use some more some extra hands out there. And
what a beautiful place.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
And they're very knowledgeable about the butterflies. Yeah, I mean yes,
tell you all about them, yeah, and where to find
them in there, you know certain ones.

Speaker 3 (39:03):
Yeah, they I mean there were just so many, and
then they do butterfly releases and then they have an
area where you can see their chrysalis and they have yeah,
the caterpillars and the host plants, and there's a little
native nursery there too. So yeah, I just wanted to
throw that out there.

Speaker 4 (39:22):
Butterflies, Yeah, oh yeah, I got a lot.

Speaker 1 (39:25):
Yeah, they're all.

Speaker 4 (39:27):
The same kind. Though I don't have too many moths
like you were, like you were saying.

Speaker 1 (39:31):
Yeah, I've been noticing the moths. They make me nervous.

Speaker 4 (39:34):
I get I'm seeing like, uh, mainly orange, they got
like orange wings with black around the outside.

Speaker 3 (39:42):
Maybe golf ertillaries. Or monarchs, queens. Mm hmmm, yeah cool.

Speaker 7 (39:49):
Hey, hey, you know the you see a lot of
Christmas in the store these.

Speaker 4 (39:52):
Days already, and already I forget Halloween, I know, I know.

Speaker 7 (39:57):
I'm seeing paper white Narcissus and and Mailla for sale.
A great gifts for Christmas of course there too, so
start looking for that. I guess a plant early here,
feed your palms in November. We're almost into November, and we're.

Speaker 4 (40:15):
No more pruning. No no, no no, don't prune your plants.
No no, no, let them suffer at the unsightly nois
until March.

Speaker 7 (40:25):
But feeding palms are going to recommend an eight two
twelve four or an eight zero twelve four as per
label instructions, as a granular slow release product. And it's
not cheap, so shop around there. But that's what's recommended
and was formulated by the palm specialists as being the
very best for palms. And some are very finicky about

(40:48):
getting their nutrients because if they don't get certain nutrients,
they will get nutritional deficiencies and deformities and all that.
So nutrition is very basic there. Another thing we'd talk
about was a weed, and it's a weed that's creeping
in from pastures into lawns on occasion. I've seen it,
haven't felt it yet, but it's the heart leaf nettle.

(41:10):
Do you know nettles, Yeah, I don't like them. Yes,
this one is a very short one. So we'll get
on the lawn and it's got hairs that will break
off in you and then the venom the toxins in
those tips and it's very, very irritating. So there was
all fact sheet just on nettles, especially the heart leaf nettle.

Speaker 4 (41:33):
So be careful out there kids.

Speaker 7 (41:34):
That's it.

Speaker 3 (41:36):
Go to our event bright Page. I know we don't
have any time left, but go to our event bright Page.
We have lots of events coming up. Event Bright ufipis
Extension Charlotte County Parks. That teach is this Saturday in
front of the Pantagorda Library. Free starts at nine point thirty.
Master gardeners will walk you around the library and the
pathways around, teach you about the plants demonstration garden on

(42:03):
Tuesday mornings on two five five five zero Harbor View
Road Master Gardener Demonstration Garden Tuesday mornings. Go to Event
Bright and we have a lot more programs coming up
as well.

Speaker 4 (42:17):
All right, well, folks, thank you very much, appreciate, thank you.
What is that again, butter Daisy, thanks for the butter.

Speaker 9 (42:27):
I'll let you know.

Speaker 4 (42:28):
I'll put on my salad tonight. We'll see you guys
next month, and folks will talk to you tomorrow morning.

Speaker 9 (42:33):
I have a great day.

Speaker 7 (42:50):
Anybody got any more jokes, anything funny? Nope, nope, all right,
see you folks.

Speaker 13 (42:56):
You are off, You're close. If you're not, then you
or the crew please leave. We are close.

Speaker 9 (43:07):
To make your way.

Speaker 7 (43:09):
To the door.

Speaker 6 (43:10):
We're in news radio fifteen eighty am WCCF Punda Gorda
and FM one hundred point

Speaker 4 (43:16):
Nine W two sixty five EA Punda Gorda.